Cuban entrepreneurs gird for ban on import sales

Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a University of Pittsburgh professor emeritus of economics, interpreted the new law as an attempt to protect the government’s own retail operations.

“It miscalculated” before, Mesa-Lago said. “It thought it could compete with these people who … sell at a reasonable price while (state-run) stores have very high prices.”

After being laid off from his hotel job, Frank Rodriguez, 30, took out a cobbler’s license and began selling imported shoes at El Curita. He intends to recover his $3,000 investment one way or another, by selling “here or elsewhere.”

“We are living days of complete uncertainty,” Rodriguez said. “If they allowed this for three years across the country, why prohibit it now? How, and with what money will I buy food for my daughter?”

Diana Sanchez, who supports herself, her daughter and her retired mother by selling plumbing and household supplies, is considering becoming a manicurist.

“What I sell, I can’t make. So they’re going to shut me down? You can’t do that,” Sanchez said. “They allowed this. We had hope, an illusion that things were really going to change. … We’re going to take a step back instead of moving forward.”